Kathryn Gardner’s Fairytale on Church Street is The Cockpit’s first ‘homegrown’ show in 35 years. Her original story celebrates the importance of the arts in local communities and embraces the style of fringe theatre organisations like The Cockpit fight to preserve.

The play is performed in the round, with the walls surrounding the audience holding the names and signs of local shops. The action takes place on Marylebone’s Church Street, with a haphazard cast of fairytale characters and thinly veiled social commentary about the London rental market and lack of funding for the arts.

We follow the Hood family (hapless son Robin, precocious but talented daughter Red Riding and grand dame Mother Hood) as they fight to save their failing Church Street theatre from the clutches of greedy landlord The Big Bad Wolf. Throw in an artful dodger style Goldilocks roaming the streets of London stealing cakes and looking for empty beds to spend the night and a bag of magic beans and you have all the makings of good-natured pantomime fun.

The talented cast play instruments throughout, accompanying themselves through a set list of iconic tunes including Jailhouse Rock, Radiohead’s Creep and Let Me Entertain You. However, these numbers are overly ambitious for the small cast and space and the renditions fall flat as the actors attempt to juggle saxophones and cellos with dance routines and harmonies. Glitzy Von Jagger’s Mother Hood tries her hardest to keep energy up throughout, but overall, the show struggles to produce the liveliness and audience engagement expected of a festive pantomime. 

The standout performance comes from Emilia Harrild as Goldilocks, whose touching character arc sees her breaking out of the fairytale typecast of lonely thief and befriending the Hood family in their fight against The Big Bad Wolf. Harrild is also the strongest singer of the group, with the best musical performance being a touching tribute to new friendship between Goldilocks and Red Riding Hood – ably played by Carys McQueen – as the pair duet Bruno Mars’ Count on Me.

Fairytale on Church Street is a fun, family-friendly night out with some genuine laugh out loud moments. Whilst it lacks the energy and bravado of a more established Christmas pantomime, this show at The Cockpit is good fun and a testimony to the importance of community theatre.     

Date: until 30 December 2023. Location: The Cockpit. Gateforth Street, London NW8 8EH. Price: from £12. Book now.

Words by Ellen Hodgetts